Black Sails - Starz New Golden Age of Pirates series

So this happened on Saturday Jan 25. The first episode is on Youtube if you want to catch it.

It wasn’t great TV. I am not even sure if it counts as good TV. It was, to my tastes, entertaining TV, but pirates, black powder weapons, the Age of Sail and shamelessly gratuitous sex works for me. YMMV.

I’m willing to sail with this series as long as the yarns unspool in an entertaining fashion, the violence remains stirring and the rum does not run out.

Quite an interesting portrayal of Blackbeard.

I enjoyed it enough, though none of the leads really took my interest. Capt. Flint looked distractingly too much like Jorah Mormont to me.

Black sails? That means Theseus is dead! Nooo…

Toby Stephens does indeed look (and in some ways, sound) like Iain Glen, who plays Jorah Mormont on Game of Thrones

Iain Glen


Toby Stephens

Toby Stephens does indeed look (and in some ways, sound) like Iain Glen, who plays Jorah Mormont on Game of Thrones. Clearly, the hair is parted on opposite sides! Glen’s is a little thinner, too.

Iain Glen


Toby Stephens

Was I the only one who felt slightly insulted by this show? I watched the first episode last night, and while it was very pretty, even on my aging tv, I found the lesbian sex annoying. It’s become a thing that new shows thinks that have to show tits and ass to reel in the viewers and this show is no different. The lesbians were clearly there only for the reason that they want the dudebros I guess its called to go “Hell yeah” and tune in the next time. I’d much rather they made a show that was good (Like True Detective) and in that way reeled in their audience.

I’m no prude - hell, I’m from Denmark where we liberated sex 50 years ago and used to nudity amongst all genders both beaches and other places, but this just makes me sad and somewhat annoyed.

Its not a new thing, but it has become increasingly difficult to gloss over. The very first episode of X-Files had Gillian Andersen in bra and undies. That was the only time it happened in that particular show and thats…well, bearable I guess. I would just like to enjoy the show for what it is, and for however much gratuitous sex and violence they show.

Other than that, the show was…well, competent but ultimately not very interesting to me.

Wait…pyrates? Okay, I’ll give it a shot…I ain’t a corsair for nothing!

It looked to me like this series, Michael Bay notwithstanding, must have a typically limited TV budget. It was a pirate show with most of the story landlocked. Even the “big” opening sea battle was mostly interior shots.

Really? I thought it was stock footage, myself. However, my knowledge of how these things are shot couldn’t fill a pamphlet.

Watched it over the weekend. I thought it was, at best, “meh”. As noted, T&A for no point other than titillation. A big promised story arc. Bad dialogue, bad acting, “surprises” like the female boss that are almost a cliche in themselves.

Nothing compelling enough to warrant watching the second episode.

I’m going to keep up with it for a few more episodes solely because I discounted Spartacus for the same reasons after the first two episodes…then the actual intrigue and character interaction took off around the third episode and it became exponentially better after that.

I’ll wait for the extended returns from future episodes to see if this one evolves. I know a lot of pirate, um, enthusiasts, I guess you could say. They are so far not entertained…

I felt the same way. I actually skipped over the sex scenes because they were so damn silly and felt utterly immaterial to the show’s plot. Plus, the very brief nudity from Woody Harrelson’s mistress in True Detective was infinitely sexier than the prostitute orgy or lesbian sex scene from Black Sails. I get that sex is how Starz differentiates itself from other networks, but they could really do a better job of it. I don’t know if it did, but it felt like it made more sense on Spartacus, perhaps because ancient Rome is thought of as a fuck-filled place. I feel like Caribbean piracy is a pretty good setting for that sort of thing though, and they dropped the ball in the pilot.

I was also bored by the central plot of the treasure ship they’re hunting down. They failed to give me a reason to care about Flint’s search for it, John Silver’s stealing of the schedule, etc. The setting is interesting enough that I’ll likely keep watching, but this is yet another Starz show that can’t live up to the competition. Even FX does better work in serialized dramas.

You’re watching a show on Starz, former home of Spartacus. It’s like you’re asking for FX shows to have less morally grey protagonists.

Does that mean we cant express our opinion about it? I’m having trouble deciphering what it is you mean to accomplish here? Say that “C’est la vie”? We can’t do anything so lets not discuss it?

I’m also not watching a show on Starz, but on HBONordic who shows this show to me. Am I supposed to check first what content the shows creators, writers, actors, and executive producers are known for? Should I have made sure I knew all the shows from Starz beforehand? Should I have watched them beforehand?

Anyways - nice to know I’m not alone. I predict that this show will not last beyond the second season based on the lukewarm reception I’m seeing around the web.

Spartacus started out as terrible TV, but a half-dozen episodes in, it turned into something great. So… perhaps there is hope.

Well, I’d love to watch a great pirates series, so I’m hoping!

Oh for goodness sake, calm down. I’m just teasing that Starz is a channel that feels it has a formula now, that of HBO’s seedier downmarket cousin for violence and boobs.

I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!

okay, maybe I will ;-)

So has anyone watched anymore of the show and changed their opinion?